Neil Young Tribute Kicks Off Grammy Weekend

Archive for January, 2010

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Neil Young Tribute Kicks Off Grammy Weekend

LOS ANGELES — Neil Young sat in the audience as 20 of his best known songs were performed on stage.

Elton John, James Taylor, Dave Matthews and more than a dozen other artists launched Grammy weekend with performances honoring Young as the MusiCares Person of the Year. The annual event celebrates an artist’s philanthropy each year as it raises funds for the music industry charity that provides financial, medical and personal assistance to artists in need.

Young was honored for his decades of philanthropic service, including work with Farm Aid and the Bridge School Concerts, which raise money to provide services for kids with severe speech and physical impairments. The singer-songwriter and more than 2,000 other guests at the Los Angeles Convention Center were treated to new interpretations of his timeless songs, including “Harvest Moon” and “Cinnamon Girl,” during Friday’s nearly four-hour program.

Jack Black served as the evening’s host. He said the night’s performers had been “unforgettably, awesomely and life-changingly” influenced by Young’s music.

They included John, who said Young was “my hero” as an artist, philanthropist and humanitarian. John played piano and sang “Helpless” backed by Sheryl Crow, Leon Russell and Neko Case.

Taylor performed “Heart of Gold.” Matthews offered a heartfelt version of “The Needle and the Damage Done.” John Fogerty and Keith Urban sang “Keep Rocking in the Free World.”

Ben Harper, backed by three female singers, offered a stirring take on “Ohio.” Jones duetted with another acoustic guitarist on “Tell Me Why,” and Crow played the accordion as she sang with Stephen Stills on “Long May You Run.”

Friday, January 29, 2010

Kingblind.com iPhone app goes live!

Kingblind.com is pleased to announce that we have finished development of our new iPhone app. This app is available now through the iPhone app store and is 100% free. Our app will track all the latest post from Kingblind as well as our current tweets. (just click categories to switch between our main content and our twitter feed.)

Also, we are almost done with our Android app as well. We will keep you posted on it’s availability. Hell it’s the 21st century what’s a blog to do! Enjoy, and please send us your feedback.

The Soft Pack to play 10 Los Angeles shows in one day

The Soft Pack have revealed that they are set to play 10 gigs in one day, this Saturday (January 30) in Los Angeles.

The band will be travelling around on a vegetable oil-fuelled bus organised by the city’s annual FYF Fest. They will kick off the gig run at 10am (PST) at a house party and wrap it up at a secret location at midnight. Updates will be given via the band’s Twitter page, Twitter.com/thesoftpack.

Liam Gallagher: ‘My post-Oasis album will be out by July’

The singer says that his new group – featuring former Oasis bandmates Andy Bell and Gem Archer – had eight songs, and are aiming to head into the studio soon.

“A lot of these songs I wrote before the band [Oasis] split up,” Gallagher told XFM. “I mean, there’s a few new ones on there that are coming out now.”

He added: “We’re going in [the studio] in April with a producer, we’re going to do three songs with him and if he doesn’t balls it up and we don’t balls it up then we’ll go in and do the whole album with him.”

Gallagher suggested he was keen to get on with the new, still nameless group – saying he regretted the fact that Oasis only made seven albums in the 16 years they had a record deal. He called the amount of music Oasis’ put out in their career “poor”, and chastised the band for taking so long to produce new material.

“Seven albums for Oasis is not good, I don’t think. We’ve been going 18 years, 16 years or whatever and all we’ve done is seven albums. Ian Brown’s on his seventh solo album. I just think it’s poor, really,” Gallagher said.

“I’m not going to beat myself up about it, I think we should have made better, bigger albums. Or more albums. Having like four or five years off is just no good,” he added. “Obviously Noel (Gallagher) wanted a bit of time off and we don’t. The band split in August – we was in the studio in November ‘cos we’re mad for it.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Gallagher said he wants to appear on ‘I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here or Total Wipeout – but only if no other contestants are involved.

“I’d like to do all that shit,” he said, before adding that Total Wipeout is his favourite reality TV programme of the moment. “They do it in Argentina. I’d love to do it on my jaxy, with no one about.”

Nick Cave, Johnny Depp, Shane MacGowan to Record Haiti Charity Single

Believe me, that headline sounded too good to be true to me as well, not to mention that this news was initially reported by one of Rupert Murdoch’s least reliable news outlets, UK rag The Sun, but the Guardian confirmed today that Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan has called on famous friends Johnny Depp, Nick Cave, and Bobby Gillespie to record a cover song to benefit Haiti disaster relief. What song are they covering? Only one of the greatest of all time: Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ 1958 hit “I Put a Spell On You.”

As the Guardian aptly notes, Cave’s former band The Birthday Party also covered the Hawkins classic (watch them perform the song in 1981 here), as well as a slew of other artists, incuding Nina Simone, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Joe Cocker.

No other details about this epic charity single are available at this time, but photographer Danny Clifford teased in a blog post that “later this week all will be revealed.”

Broken Bells: The High Road (Music Video)

Thursday, January 28, 2010

95 Percent of Downloads Still Illegal…

On-demand platforms like MySpace Music, Spotify, and Grooveshark have successfully drawn attention away from file-sharing networks. Or have they? According to the IFPI, file-swapping still remains a huge problem – and the needle is hardly moving at all.

In a conference call last week, the group reaffirmed to Digital Music News that 95 percent of all downloads are still unauthorized and unpaid. Others also reported the stat, including the Financial Times and Reuters.

That is the same figure from last year, and the ratio remains stubborn despite continued digital growth. During the call, the IFPI pointed to a 12 percent gain in global digital revenues in 2009 to $4.2 billion. Stateside, Nielsen Soundscan outlined an 8.3 percent gain on paid downloads to 1.159 billion units.

But what about the effect of Spotify and friends? IFPI chief John Kennedy downplayed their influence, noting that “the effect has been exaggerated” by executives and the media. “It takes a lot to move the needle,” Kennedy noted, while also pointing to an only-partial global rollout of on-demand services. (via digital music news)

F*cked Up: Crooked Head (Music Video)

Between our recent “Grizzly Bear Score New Ryan Gosling Film” and music at the Sundance Film Festival sleuthing posts, I would’ve sworn we had outed all the notable musical contributions to this year’s indie film showcase in Park City, UT, but it turns out we missed one…

While digging through reviews of the Gosling/Michelle Williams-starring romantic drama Blue Valentine for more details on Grizzly Bear’s contribution to the score, I uncovered the following bit from the NY Post:

A big part of [Blue Valentine’s] expressiveness comes not from the tightly controlled, elliptical script but from the score by Grizzly Bear, which also did much for the Philip Seymour Hoffman film “Jack Goes Boating”

Upon further inspection, I found that Grizzly Bear did, in fact, write music for Jack Goes Boating, Hoffman’s feature directorial debut in which he also stars. The Hollywood Reporter reports, however, that Evan Lurie of the Lounge Lizards is responsible for the film’s “gentle, piano-centric score,” while Jay-Z’s favorite new band provide “feathery, cerebral harmonies.”

It’s still unclear whether Lurie or the Grizzlies are primarily responsible for the score, though, as Variety’s credits contradict those of THR: “music, Grizzly Bear; additional music, Evan Lurie.” Either way, lots of mellow indie rock soundtracks are on the way, kids.

Watch the Trailer for Animal Collective’s Movie

Animal Collective and director Danny Perez’s abstract visual phantasmagoria ODDSAC premieres at the Sundance Film Festival tonight. But if you can’t make it to Utah, the guys are offering some solace in the form of a 30-second trailer for the film– which looks dark and weird and features a dude running through the woods with smoke coming out of his head. Watch it below.ODDSAC is also set to screen in New York and Chicago in March. Check the movie’s official site for more info.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H48VtETngA&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

SPOON TRANSFERENCE DEBUTS AT #4

Spoon’s seventh album Transference has entered the U.S. Album chart #4, having sold 53,696 in its first week of release. The debut week represents the highest sales week of the band’s long running career, its previous high being the release week of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga which debuted at #10 in July of 2007.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

LCD Soundsystem Announce tour dates and some album details

LCD Soundsystem “are back.” Three years after the brilliant Sound of Silver, James Murphy is ready to drop his next LP in the coming months. Details are hard to come by at the moment, but we know he recorded the album at an L.A. mansion with a swimming pool, thanks to a fun behind-the-scenes video playing at the LCD site (also embedded below). The vid is soundtracked by a totally sleazy new beat that sounds a hell of a lot like Iggy Pop’s “Nightclubbing”– a good sign!

In the rambling MySpace missive, Murphy promises, “i’m not going to make many expensive videos. know why? no one plays videos.” This is a shame, since his “All My Friends” clip was one of the best of the decade. He also promises, “i will fall over and injure myself at some point on this tour.”

Cold War Kids: Behave Yourself (Album Review)

Though it’s only 14 minutes long, Behave Yourself goes a long way toward showing what Cold War Kids can do with their music. Their second album, Loyalty to Loyalty, was filled with nearly as many disappointments as innovations, but this EP focuses that album’s dark, soulful direction into four impressive songs. “Audience of One” begins Behave Yourself on a surprisingly smooth note, bringing Cold War Kids’ sound, especially Nathan Willett’s vocals, closer to the Jeff Buckley-tinged side of their music than their feisty rock. “Sermons” gets even more soulful and feels appropriately gospel-inspired, and while the bright pop of “Coffee Spoon” and “Santa Ana Winds” doesn’t exactly rock, these songs bring an energy that contrasts nicely with the EP’s other tracks. Streamlined, confident, and cohesive, Behave Yourself finds Cold War Kids getting their groove back.

Keith Richards: I’m a Stone cold sober

Doctors had been telling Keith for years he needed to cut back on his boozing.

He once famously boasted he would never stop because he had outlived several medics who chided him about his constant partying. Hell Raising Rolling Stone Keith Ricard has gone on the wagon – despite claiming he would NEVER give up booze.

The 66-year-old rocker finally quit after getting strict orders from his doctor – and watching bandmate Ronnie Wood’s life unravel through alcoholism.

Now “Keef” has not touched a drop for Four Months.

A friend said last night: “There’s no guarantees that he’ll stay off it – but he’s doing really well so far.”

But four years ago he suffered a brain haemorrhage after falling out of a palm tree during a booze-fuelled trip to Fiji with pal Ronnie – who later left wife Jo for teenager Katia Ivanova.

Now doctors say Keith’s hedonistic lifestyle is finally starting to take its toll.

A source close to the guitarist – married to former model Patti Hanson for 26 years – said: “He has always quite enjoyed the fact that he seemed to be able to carry on drinking as much as he liked with no real negative impact on his health.

“But he has watched Ronnie fall well and truly off the wagon last year and he doesn’t like what he sees.

“Plus he has started to feel for the first time like it might do him some good to give up the booze for a while.”